Jackson on top with a WNBA title

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Lauren Jackson's inevitable rise to the pinnacle of
international women's basketball was completed yesterday, Melbourne
time, after the Australian helped Seattle win its first Women's
National Basketball Association championship.

The Storm defeated Connecticut Sun 74-60 at Key Arena, Seattle,
for a 2-1 win in their best-of-three finals series.

The triumph gave Seattle its first major professional sporting
title since the SuperSonics won the National Basketball Association
crown in 1979.

Jackson - who has already won two Olympic silver medals, four
Women's National Basketball League titles with Canberra, and the
2003 most valuable player award in the WNBA - became, along with
her Seattle teammate Tully Bevilaqua, the first Australians to win
a WNBA title.

Despite a nagging foot injury that she has had since the Athens
Olympics, Jackson once again played a significant role in the
victory, finishing with 13 points - a little off her WNBA-best
average of 20.5 points a game - and seven rebounds, while
32-year-old Bevilaqua hit a clutch three-pointer during the second
half that many considered swung the momentum the way of the
Storm.

Ever since she was selected No. 1 overall in the 2001 draft,
Jackson has been the centrepiece around which this Storm team was
built. A sign in the 17,000-strong crowd yesterday read: "I'm gonna
be like Lauren."

A parody of an old Michael Jordan commercial, it was also a
telling indication of Jackson's influence in Seattle - even if
teammate Betty Lennox was named finals MVP after averaging 22.3
points a game.

The 23-year-old Jackson had been earmarked for greatness since
she began making NSW state teams in the mid-1990s.

When she arrived in Seattle in 2001, she was already the
youngest-ever Opal - having played in the 1998 world championships
at 16 - and a two-time WNBL champion.

But her best form was saved for the WNBA. An All Star in each of
her first three seasons, Jackson led the league in scoring in 2003,
averaging 21.2 points a game en route to her first MVP award.

She again topped the scoring charts this year, finishing
runner-up in MVP voting to arch-rival Lisa Leslie.

But Jackson has the title she truly coveted - WNBA champion. "I
knew we were going to win a championship, it just took a little bit
of time," she said.

"We have the best fans in the whole of the world, that's why
we're world champions, and I'm so proud to be adopted by
Seattle."

Back in their home town of Albury, Jackson's parents Gary and
Maree sat watching their daughter - in her fourth season with the
club - help Seattle to the title. "It was a great result. Seattle
is just going to go nuts over it," Gary Jackson said.

"It's a big thing, professional sports over there, and when a
city wins a professional title they really embrace it.

"Lauren set goals for herself and now that's another one off the
list. Now there's only one left, and we all know what that one is .
. . the Olympic gold medal, and she wants it really badly.

"She's a very determined young lady. Once she has got a goal in
her sights . . . if she's got a goal, she'll do anything she can to
make it happen for herself and her team."